Saturday 9 - Whistle While You Work

We are talking about jobs today. Pick any job of your career. Tell us when and where it was. Then answer today's Saturday: 9.

1. Tell us which job your are telling us about, and when you had it.

I will talk about my Graduate Assistant job in the reference department at the graduate school I attended.  It was from 2005-2007.

2. Where do/did you work?

I worked in the reference department of a large university library...the main campus of 7, and the biggest library of the 7 on the main campus.  I was a graduate assistant.  I worked at the reference desk, assisting students, faculty, staff and community members and I also did projects for the reference librarians.

3. Tell us about that boss.

I had two.  First was a manager, who was a reference librarian.  He was lots of fun and a great person.  He was very fair and thoughtful and always listened to the students and other librarians.  There was also the main boss, who was the head of Reference Services.  He was a fun guy too.  Friendly and liked to have a good conversation.  He was also very fair and thoughtful.  He liked bikes a lot.  :D  I had good bosses and co-workers.  :)

4. Do/Did you find your work creative? If yes how?

Oh yes.  I learned something new everyday, usually more than one thing.  In reference service, you are constantly helping people find information and understand information.  Many times, the question wasn't a topic that I was familiar with, so I ended up learning about the topic.  I also got to participate in lots of projects and I was able to do some teaching in classes, training, and tours for undergraduates.  It was fun.  :)

5. Tell us about your favorite co-worker.

Oh man, I'm not sure I could pick a favorite co-worker!  I liked everyone!  :)  I worked with someone different every hour of every day, so I got time with each person.  Everyone had different personalities and so the dynamic at the desk was always different, which was enjoyable.

6. Tell us about the biggest jerk in that job.

Seriously, we really didn't have a 'jerk' in our department!  Everyone was awesome.  We were a really good team and everyone got along really well.  :D  We had some regular patrons that were less than stellar, but they were fleeting.  We only encountered them occasionally.

7. Where do/did you see yourself with this job in five years?

Well, that was a 'temp' position, since it was a graduate position that I could only hold while I was a student.  When I graduated, I could not work there anymore.  I would love have a full-time job there, someday.  It's a great place to work.  :)

8. Tell us about your commute.

I lived just off-campus.  It took me about 15 minutes or so to walk the distance to the library.  Some days I would drive (no late night walking all alone for me! lol), take the bus system (which hardly ever ran the hours I needed it), or I would walk.  It was a quick commute.  :)

9. What hours of the day do/did you work?

All of them.  lol  Our schedules were built around our classes, since we were graduate students.  Usually we worked in 2-3 hour shifts.   Sometimes only 1 hour, sometimes a full 8 hour shift.  I worked a lot of 4 hour shifts.  We always worked one night (5-10pm) a week and a bunch of Saturdays a semester, but mostly, our hours were within 9am-5pm, Monday - Friday.